Camera’s new home sold to local investors

BOULDER – The owner of the old home of The Daily Camera newspaper has sold the newspaper’s current home and another building in Boulder for $5.1 million.

Karlin Real Estate, a Los Angles-based real-estate development and investment company, this month sold the office buildings at 1780 Conestoga St. and 5450 Western Ave. to Square Six LLC, a local real estate investment group.

Karlin is best known locally as the owner of the former downtown headquarters of The Daily Camera at 1048 Pearl St. Karlin plans to redevelop that property and the adjoining building at 1023 Walnut St. into a 160,000-square-foot mixed-use project that will include about 132,000 square feet of office space.

Karlin acquired those buildings in 2009 as a “value-add investment,” vice president Vicky Canto said. At the time there were 25,000 square feet of vacancy, Canto said. Karlin’s strategy all along was to make upgrades to the buildings, fill them and then sell them. Canto declined to say how much Karlin spent on the buildings, but its website said it negotiated a price with the prior owner’s lender after it could no longer pay its debt.

The properties, especially 5450 Western Ave., required extensive work, said Lynda Gibbons, president of Gibbons-White Inc. and the broker for both the buyer and seller.

“They brought the building down to its bare bones and completely redid the interior for The Daily Camera, including a new HVAC system, new electrical, new interior finishes and added windows and customized the improvements throughout,” Gibbons wrote in an email. “Having added the value and stabilized the portfolio, they then sold it.”